News Story

A bible-belt small town in Southeastern Kentucky votes for county to go wet after 2 previous tries failed by narrow margins in 2012 and 2016.

As of November 2019, McCreary County, Ky, is a wet county. The voting total shows 2,457 people voted yes whereas 2,178 voted no.  I wanted to go ask a local business about how its impacting their preparation into selling alcohol.  I went to my local Kroger market and ask the manager about how the process is going. The process was still at a stand-still because the local Fiscal Court is still working through some things to start allowing the sell of alcohol. I asked the manager and they said that “It’s still a process at the moment and we don’t know when it’ll be official.” They also added that, “we’ll definitely be applying for a license because of the potential business that it would bring.” The McCreary County Fiscal Court met on January 3 to discuss whether or not to sell alcohol on Sundays. 4 out of the 5 people voted against selling on Sunday. The 5 people within the Fiscal Court are Judge Executive Jimmie W. Greene, Bill Hale, Roger Phillips, Bobby Strunk, and Randy Maxwell.

 I wanted to get a scale about what people in the community thought about the decision to sell alcohol finally in the county. Michael Wright, who has lived in the county for 35 years said, “It’s a relief that we’re finally going to get something out of it instead of giving all of our tax money to Winfield”. Winfield, Tn. is the neighboring town in Scott County, Tn., people in McCreary County know it as the “border” where a lot of people go to get their alcohol. 

The county still doesn’t have an ABC administrator because of the on-going meeting. 

***UPDATE***

After a brief follow-up county officials, there still isn’t any update to the situation and the conversation is still at a stand-still.